A diagnosis and the beginning of the obstacle course. In October 2023, Doriane Le Floch, a 21-year-old student from Vannes, in Morbihan, learned that she had lipedema. Also called “polar leg disease”, this chronic and progressive pathology has as its main symptom the concentration of fatty tissue under the skin of the legs and arms.
“It starts with the swelling of the extremities, it seems disproportionate to the rest of our body. At first we don’t worry too much, we tell ourselves that it is the morphology, the normal changes of the body. There is pain, heaviness in the legs,” he explains to BFMTV.
If this news allows the young woman to better understand the disease she has suffered since adolescence, she discovers that research on this disease is very late in France and that existing treatments are not reimbursed.
To receive adequate treatment, Doriane is forced to take out a loan of 12,000 euros to undergo surgery in a specialized clinic in Germany. Today, the latter wants an evolution in the treatment of lipedema so that other patients do not find themselves in a similar situation.
“Ce serait bien que le parcours Médical soit plus simple et que par example il n’y ait pas des jeunes filles mineures qui n’aient pas à se battre pour ça, qu’elles soient vraiment accompagnées par leur médecin”, martèle-t -she.
New operation on June 24
Although France is less advanced than some of its European neighbors in the treatment of lipedema, health professionals assure that the situation is gradually becoming normal.
“In Paris and other large cities in France we have surgeons who know lipedema and who are capable of operating on it satisfactorily with the same modern tools and machines and with the same knowledge about this pathology,” Audrey Stansal, a doctor in the department, promises to BFMTV. vascular of the American Hospital of Paris.
The truth is that, in order to treat her also affected arms, Doriane is forced to open an online fundraiser to finance her treatment. The operation is scheduled for June 24, still in Germany.
Source: BFM TV
